BRANDED NEW

Welcome! Hey everyone! If you’re brand new or brand old here today, it’s true we may not all believe the same things, but we all struggle with the same temptations, fears, insecurities, and doubts. True? We have more in common with each other than we may think. So, I’m glad we’re all here today!

We are teaching a series right now called “Brand New!” It’s also our theme for 2013. Our theme verse from the Bible is Isaiah 43:19 “I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”

The question again is: How many of you would like to experience something brand new for your life in 2013? BUT… for “brand new” to happen you may need to overcome something “brand old??”

Maybe you’ve been passed down some things in your life that has branded you in such a way that you feel limited or restricted by those past influences, examples, or experiences! Maybe there’s something in your life, a mistake, bad decision, a hurt, hang up, habit, that has “branded” your life in a way that you wish you could change- and your hope, your prayer is: “I wish I could be branded new!”

Nick Vujiicic refuses to be branded as having no limbs, but instead to be branded as having no limits!

And you deal with this tension between how you’ve been branded and the “brand new” you wish you could experience! Because you probably know…

You didn’t get to choose some things on the front end…

You didn’t choose your parents, nationality, gender, natural abilities, natural weaknesses, etc.
But there’s no question you can take what you didn’t get to choose and make the most out of it!
If what you didn’t get to choose you believe, or perhaps it has “branded” you in some negative context, you may be surprised by what God can do, the something new he can do, with your life!

You can’t change the past…

Rick Warren says, “You are a product of your past, but you don’t have to be a prisoner of your past!”
Your past has influence in your life, but you can hindered by it or helped by it!
Isaiah 61:3 says God can give you “beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise instead of despair…” You can’t change the past but God can create something beautiful from it!
To be branded new decide to see your life without limits instead of liabilities!

But did you know that You’re circumstances can either hurt you or help you??

Some of our circumstances we didn’t choose, while many others are the products of our choices in life. Maybe 2012 or someplace in your past you messed or made some mistakes; or simply think you’re at a disadvantage to every one else??

The question is: Will you continue to let your circumstances HURT you or will you let them HELP you and SEE the BRAND NEW God wants to do?

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? How is it possible to consider all the things you didn’t get to choose… the things you can’t change about your past… the circumstances of life both past and present… and believe that God can make something brand new and beautiful despite of, or better yet, out of all that stuff??

Listen how God speaks to Israel (with their messed up lives)…

Key Text: Isaiah 43: 10-13 10 “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be. 11 I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. 12 First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord. 13 “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”

YOU ARE CHOSEN TO KNOW GOD!

To be “branded new” regardless of where you’ve been or what’s going on right now, there are 3 critical things God wants you to know:

God wants you to KNOW he loves you no matter what!

That’s right! No matter what! God’s love is unconditional- you can’t earn it, you can’t deserve it, you can’t lose it! John says “God IS love!”
God CHOOSES to LOVE! And to love you and me always! YES, salvation is conditional, but not love; God’s love is unconditional!

God wants you to KNOW that he has a great purpose for your life!

If you’re HERE, then you are HERE on PURPOSE! God wants you to know that!
God planned your life; it’s not coincidental or accidental…
And even with detours, disobedience, and doubts along the way, God wants you to know he is always at work to bring your life on track… GPS??

God wants you to KNOW that old things can pass away and all things can become new! (2 Cor. 5:17) “…Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.”

That verse is a profound promise: You become a NEW Person- branded new in Christ!

YOU ARE CHOSEN BY GOD TO BELIEVE!

To be “branded new”- the new identity or new dimension of life you hope and pray for, there’s 2 things God wants you to believe:

God wants you to BELIEVE that he is All-Powerful!

We all should know that our power, our strength, our wisdom, our ability to overcome something or anything is very limited, RIGHT?
You can run out of time, run out of money, run out of strength…
And sooner or later we are going to need, even HAVE to BELIEVE that God is our ultimate solution because HE has ALL-POWER and ALL-AUTHORITY!

God wants you to BELIEVE that all things are possible!

Several times many different Bible writers remind us that “nothing is too hard for God… nothing is impossible with God!”
How do they know that? Because they experienced it!
And that’s why you can too! So, even though you’re circumstances may be dire or at least difficult, BECAUSE there is LIFE even after DEATH, God is the GOD of POSSIBILITIES in 2013 for your life!

YOU ARE CHOSEN BY GOD TO UNDERSTAND!

To be “branded new” there’s really only 1 thing God wants to help you understand:

God wants you to UNDERSTAND WHY your life is not limited by your circumstances!

Jn. 9:1-3 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” 3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

“THIS HAPPENED…” Your life is NOT LIMITED by your LIABILITIES or circumstances- just ask Nick Vujicic!! YOUR LIFE HAPPENED so God could do something powerful in and through you!

KNOW, BELIEVE, and UNDERSTAND that for 2013! You can be “branded” new!

“NO ONE CAN UNDO WHAT GOD HAS DONE!”

I leave you with this today: There are most likely things in your life; a mistake, a bad decision, a poor influence, you’d like to UNDO- right? Well, you know you simply can’t undo it! But that doesn’t mean it has to brand you or limit you for the rest of your life!
Or maybe you’ve been looking too much at your circumstances- how you were raised, how you’re wired, and you’ve been thinking for far too long that somehow everyone else has an advantage over you- right? Well, like Nick Vujicic you have a choice you CAN make- “Life without limbs or life without limits”… What’s it going to be?

Because God says, KNOW, BELIEVE, and UNDERSTAND this- no one can undo what I have done OR WHAT HE’S DOING- SOMETHING NEW!

Do you know what that really means? No one, no power, no person, nothing and no one can keep God from making something brand new and beautiful of your life!

Close: Cake illustration…

Remind you again: Isaiah 61:3 To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

PROCESS THIS… where you’re seated: EXTRA NOTE PAGE- What’s the something “Brand Old” in your life that now you KNOW, BELIEVE, and UNDERSTAND that God can help you “Brand New” and make something beautiful from?

In three decades of ministry, Terry Broadwater affected countless lives at The Worship Center (Leesburg, VA), Bethel Assembly and LifeHouse Network (Hagerstown, MD), and, most recently, as senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Centennial, Colorado. He also served on the board of the National Church Multiplication Network and was the director of the XA (Chi Alpha) Network. Terry always saw the best in others and encouraged them to find and follow God’s purpose for their lives. He was a man of vision and action, planting churches, building connections, and supporting missions-related efforts worldwide. In his final days, he led a team to remote northern India, where his love of the great outdoors and his desire to spread God’s word came together for a difficult and beautiful trek between isolated Himalayan villages. An accident on the mountainside took him from us far too early, but his testimony and impact will long remain in his fulfillment of Acts 20:24, his life scripture: “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”